1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and a method for adding the information specific to a user (or user group) and performing application of a specific process simply in a hypertext space having the mutual link relation between one or more hypertexts provided by one or more servers, and relates more particularly to an apparatus and a method for providing a specific access space that specifies the specific link search path to a user (or user group) to add specific information or perform application of a specific process in a hypertext space.
The present invention relates further particularly to an apparatus and a method for selectively specifying an access space specific to a specified individual user (or specified user group that is in cooperation in hypertext search operation) in a hypertext space, and relates yet particularly to an apparatus and a method for providing an access space specific to a range defined dynamically by searching a hypertext space of the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, technology for mutually connecting computer systems together by means of a network namely “network computing” has been developed actively. The network of mutually connected computers is important for common mutual use of computer resources and for distribution and common use of information.
Various communication media for connecting computers mutually such as LAN (Local Area Network) installed in a limited space, for example, site of company or research institute, and WAN (Wide Area Network) that connects LANs mutually with a exclusive line are available. Recently, Internet, which is a huge network that covers the whole world, has been used popularly.
The internet was the network originated from ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) constructed by the U.S. Department of Defense, and then included in NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network) of National Science Foundation in the U.S. Afterwards, the backbone was transferred to the private sector in 1995, and then has been enlarged to the current scale. Servers (mainly UNIX workstations) installed in universities and research institutes have been voluntarily connected repeatedly, as the result, the network has grown to the literal world scale network. Servers on the Internet are connected by means of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).
Numerous servers are connected on the Internet, and each server opens the resource owned by the server itself to numerous clients. For example, resource supply services such as WWW (World Wide Web), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), NEWS, and Gopher are opened on the Internet, and the access to the Internet has become easy for clients. Particularly, WWW is considered to be one important factor that has popularized the Internet rapidly.
Each resource object distributed on the Internet is specified by means of the reference called as URL (Uniform Resource Locator). URL is a character string that specifies the name of a resource, and described as scheme name (protocol name)://host name (domain name):port number/path name (file name). URL is described in, for example, RFC1738 and RFC1808. The host name defined herein is in compliance with the DNS (Domain Name System) system, which is the name service used in TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) network. The logical group called as domain can be set hierarchically in DNS, and the domain name, which is the name of the logical group, is incorporated in the computer name (host name) as a portion thereof, and the incorporated name is used. The DNS server has a corresponding table between the domain name and IP address, and returns the pertinent IP address in response to the request based on the domain name (well known).
WWW, which is the representative application in the Internet, is a distributed information retrieval system that provides the resource object of the hyperlink structure namely “hypertext” widely on the Internet, and has www servers that are distributed worldwide. Resource access is performed usually according to HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) between a WWW server and a WWW client. HTTP protocol is described in, for example, RFC (Request For Comments) 1945 and RFC2068.
The resource object that is most popularly used in WWW resource space (namely which the WWW server provides) is the hypertext document that is described in the language of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). HTML is described in, for example, RFC1866. The HTML resource object distributed on the WWW resource space has the above-mentioned URL reference (“http” is used as the scheme name).
Herein, “hypertext” treats characters, picture, and table, which constitute a file, as the object such as a card, further forms the correlation between objects namely links and has the function to refer each other via links (well known). For example, plural pieces of link information to other resource objects is embedded in the HTML document on the WWW resource space. Link information embedded in the HTML document is also the reference described in URL.
The WWW server is usually a computer system that operates with using a server application dedicated to the WWW server, has plural resource objects with hypertexts described in HTML, and offers resource supply service to the WWW client. In other words, the information supplier accumulates the information to be supplied in the WWW server as the resource object described in HTML and opens it on the Internet to thereby achieve the information supply to the WWW client.
On the other hand, a WWW client that requests a resource object on the WWW resource space is usually a computer that operates with using an application called as “WWW browser”.
The browser is a type of user agent that takes in the resource object for another, which appears on the desktop screen of a client in the form of “browser window”. The WWW browser searches the source space having the hyperlink structure on the network according to the URL entered in the prescribed box on the browser window by using a key, retrieves the resource object corresponding to the URL namely HTML document, and downloads it. The content of the acquired HTML document is used as the page information used for assembling the page (homepage) screen. In other words, the WWW browser analyzes the HTML document and displays the page screen on the browser window screen.
Generally, on the page display screen, the display object relative to the link information to other resource objects is hot-spot displayed as “anchor”, a user can detect intuitively the location of the link information scattered on the page display screen. The actual form of the link information pasted on the page display screen is the reference linked to resource objects, and described in URL form. A user can specify the next linked resource object by performing intuitive operation, that is, the user clicks an interested anchor on a homepage screen with a mouse. The WWW browser searches the resource object corresponding to the URL embedded in the anchor in response to the click operation to the anchor, and realizes the reference to the link destination.
In other words, the WWW browser searches the WWW resource space developed worldwide scale by means of the URL, and a user can thereby get the desired resource object readily. A user can reach to desired information by searching from the various view points on the resource space by use of the mutually defined link information of the hypertext namely HTML.
The resource space including hypertext having mutual linking is called as “hypertext space” hereinafter.
The link information between resource objects on the WWW resource space namely hypertext space is formed by numerous information suppliers who prepare the hypertext. Information suppliers are scattered on the WWW resource space, and the intention and policy of these resource supply are widely diversified. Therefore, the link structure defined by these numerous information suppliers is not necessarily the convenient hyperlink structure for information users namely WWW clients. In other words, it is not necessarily true that a client user can trace the path easily on the hypertext space. Particularly, because now huge quantity of information is accumulated on the WWW resource space, how to simply and efficiently access to desired information namely resource object is the important technical subject.
The same search area is searched repeatedly very often by a single user or plural users. For example, in some cases, the same information as used in the previous work is searched when the same type of information searching work is performed on the WWW resource space. In some cases, a co-worker working for the same purpose has searched and got the same information already. Furthermore, in some cases, persons who work for a related purpose in separate places have searched the same information, or other persons who have the same taste or interest have searched the same information. Reuse of the search history of the WWW resource space in the past would be helpful for users to search with improved hypertext research efficiency.
Some techniques for improving the searching work efficiency by utilizing the search result obtained commonly or privately have been proposed.
For example, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 10-254758 discloses “Document Perusal System” in which specific information is added to the page address searched by individuals. In this document perusal system, correlated specific information specific to the specified page address is stored in a data relaying system called as “proxy”. When the page information is perused, it is possible to peruse the information that has been written by the user itself in the past when the user searched and written by other persons by showing the added information.
The specification of the research path in the hypertext space having mutual link is referred to as “access space”, then the document perusal system disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 10-254758 is a technique that provides the access space of the user specific to the hypertext space. The specific access space is the hypertext space that forms the link relation different from the original hypertext space to be optimized for the purpose of the user.
For example, the browser product of U.S. Netscape's “Netscape Navigator” is an another example of the technique for reusing the searched result and history obtained by individuals, and it is provided with “bookmark” function. In this system, users of this browser classified/organized and stored the reference of the information namely the URL of the page that users of the browser thought important. The “bookmark” allows a user to call the URL list registered in the bookmark to access easily when the same information is accessed again. Furthermore, common use of the bookmark by plural users enables users to use the searched result obtained by individuals.
However, the above-mentioned known techniques in which the access space specific to the hypertext space is provided by use of the specific information accumulated when the hypertext space has been searched in the past is disadvantageous from the view point of the convenience of recording of the specific information and convenience of the specific access space.
First, the former technique in which the common information is added by use of proxy is disadvantageous in that it is difficult to select the specific access space of each user (or user group who is cooperating in hypertext searching work). The unit used for managing the specific information is variously different, for example, it may be a workplace for working with a common purpose or may be a community of users having the common interest. Such user unit may be limited to a specified department or section (namely local organization), on the other hand, may be scattered in remote locations by way of an external network. On the other hand, the management unit by means of proxy for data relaying is the unit that partitions generally between the internal network, such as company and business establishment of a company, and the external network, and this unit is apparently different from the unit for common use of the specific information for access to the hypertext space.
The latter bookmark only holds the address (URL) that is the entrance to refer the page information. Therefore, it is required for users to refer mutually the content of the bookmarks of individual users in order to commonly use the information of the page content such as comment to the page information between plural users. Furthermore, it is required that the whole page information is displayed on a browser screen even when only partial link information included in the page corresponding to a certain URL is needed. In other words, the simple management of bookmark requires waiting time until the corresponding whole page is fabricated on a screen every when one URL in the bookmark is referred to, and the reference efficiency of the information is low.